On Friday morning, March 14th at 10am residents in Colglen are invited to take part in the Place Plan Proposal Creation discussion at the Colintraive Village Hall. This is the critical stage for the whole Local Place Plan process, so do come along to make your voice heard!
As noted in our minutes in November, and elsewhere, our next meeting will be on March 10th at 7 pm with the express purpose of hosting Bute Community Council at the Colintraive Village Hall in a joint discussion on common issues, such as Calmac, a Fixed Link and other matters.
The Community Council has been contacted about several surveys which we list here:
The first is a survey on budgets and services from the Council. This is extremely important as they are looking for millions in savings. Help our community by insisting our lifelines are not cut, and that the council find different ways to balance their budgets. You have until 14th February:
https://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/form/budget-survey
“With a budget gap of £27 million over the next five years, we do not have enough funding to meet demands. We’re asking you what services should council budgets prioritise?
“Over the past 10 years, we have delivered more than £50 million in savings to continue providing services to our communities. We continue to look for more savings but the size of the budget gap means we face having to deliver further savings in the years ahead.”
In the three years to 2019 the c ommunity, through “Kyles Community Broadband” attempted to procure fibre optic broadband for the community. With a budget of £1.5M promised KCB got as far as the competitive tender, but were stymied by a combination of budget and capacity of the organisations tendering. At that point the Scottish Government promised to make our area a priority after the ten areas already allocated official priority status. Over the intervening years, despite a six-monthly reminder from the CC, nothing has happened, or has been intimated to happen. Therefore this survey is very important and we encourage everyone to answer it. Here’s what the SG say about it:
“The Scottish Government is investing in broadband infrastructure in Your area through its Reaching 100% (R100) programme and we’re keen to get your support to help gather feedback.
“The £600+ million programme is extending access to faster broadband to sub-30 Megabits per second homes and businesses who are unlikely to receive upgrades through commercial plans. You can find out more about R100 at: gov.scot/digitalconnectivity.
“To understand whether and how households and organisations have benefited from R100, the Scottish Government is undertaking an evaluation of the programme. As part of this, we are surveying households and organisations who:
“The surveys are available online and can be accessed at https://tinyurl.com/R100Evaluation“
“People in council areas across Scotland are considering a visitor levy for their area and we would like you to have the same chance to consider one for Argyll and Bute.
“Why? Because at a time when funding for public services is shrinking, a visitor levy is an option for raising investment to sustain local services used by visitors, as well as residents, and to keep the area as a top visitor attraction.
“Support for individual tourism businesses, or for extending the tourism season are examples of how levy income could be used. Services used by the visitor economy, and so could benefit from levy funding, include for example, waste, roads, transport and leisure services.
“We are running a 12-week consultation and invite you to take the time to find out more about what a levy could mean for Argyll and Bute, and then give your view.”
You can find more information on the council website, plus:
In partnership with ABCAN and as part of the development of our Local Place Plan, the Community Council and the Development Trust present an evening focussed on the River Ruel and the work of the River Improvement Association, centred around the feature film Riverwoods
Three years in the making, the featurelength Riverwoods film, produced by Riverwoods partner Scotland: The Big Picture and narrated by Peter Capaldi, shines a light on the perilous state of Scotland’s salmon, and tells the compelling story of a fish that once lived in the forest. And in the soil that feeds the forest. And in the predators, scavengers and even herbivores of the forest. Scotland’s Atlantic salmon – the King of Fish – is not only the ultimate angler’s prize, but a key building block in a complex forest ecosystem.
Doors open 17:45hrs, January 17th, Colintraive Village Hall
The community council would like to invite everyone in the community to give us your views on our place and how it can be improved to contribute to our Local Place Plan through this very Short SURVEY.
A Local Place Plan (LPP) is a community-led plan that outlines a community’s vision for the development and use of land in their area:
Downloadable version of both sides of the Summer Newsletter from 2024. Copies still available at some outlets in the Glen.
The next meeting will be at Colintraive Village Hall, Tuesday 15th October at 7.30pm
Agenda available here:
Minutes from last meeting, plus AGM minutes available here.
A blather about what would make Colglen a better place with soup, cakes and beverages
The Community Council and Development Trust along with support from Argyll and Bute Climate Action Network are facilitating the co-creation of a place plan for our area.
Here is the flyer introducing this project:
Links in the flyer:
http://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/planning-and-building/planning-policy/local-place-plans
Michael Russell, Vice-chair of the Community Council writes:
Further to the meeting held on Wednesday night about the Argyll Rally, Sam Spencer from the Rally shared the community consultation document for the 2025 Rally yesterday and I append it to this … [post as a downloadable document]
The CC has already responded, and I also give the response below [in this post]. You will see that we have taken an interim position, supporting the rally but suggesting some important changes including reducing the usage of what the Rally calls the “Kilmodan” Road and which we would call the West Road.
The CC’s next meeting is on Monday 9th September in the Glen Hall at 7.30pm and at that meeting we will decide if we should make any further response. We will also ensure that we have representation at as many of the future meetings about this as we can.
Finally the address to which individual responses to the consultation can be sent, is
consultation@argyllrally.co.uk
and that should be done as quickly as possible. You may wish to copy your responses to Argyll & Bute Council , Motorsport UK and the RSAC which is the Scottish Motorsport body and which has a role in supervising rallies in Scotland.
Those addresses are :
Finally thanks are due to everyone who came to the meeting or who emailed beforehand. By and large there was a positive discussion and most people believed that the points being made would be useful in improving the situation for the rally and for the local community.
Best wishes
Michael
Begin forwarded message:
From: Michael Russell
To: Sam Spencer, Clerk of the Course, Dunoon Presents Argyll Rally
Subject: Rally Consultation – views from COLGLEN Community Council
Date: 23 August 2024 at 11:31:12 BST
Dear Sam
Thank you for coming to the community meeting on Wednesday night and for your very positive and thoughtful input. The Community Council is now responding to the consultation document you sent yesterday and this email is also being copied to Colin Moulson, of Dunoon Presents and Hugh O’Neill of Argyll and Bute Council as well as to all those who attended on Wednesday along with the links to the document you provided.
However, whilst the Colintraive and Glendaruel Community Council would like this response to be considered as a formal response to the consultation we will look at the proposals in more detail at our next meeting due on 9th September and may add additional information at that time.
Firstly we would want to make it clear that we are not against the rally and indeed welcome the economic benefits it produces. What we want to see is the experience of and benefits arising from the rally improved for all residents of our area.
We do not presently believe that those benefits have been evenly spread nor that , where they exist, information about them has been communicated as effectively as needs to be the case. We are also of the view that there has been inadequate consultation with those most seriously affected by the rally (largely those whose access to, and egress from, their homes is curtailed by the rally) . In particular we regard the three or four week period for consultation on the detailed plans to be inadequate and we would suggest that the planning cycle for the rally be developed to allow a longer and more meaningful consultation period.
The ColGlen CC does of course accept that it needs to be more actively involved with the rally planning process and will now try to be so although it should be noted that we are a very small Community Council with the bare legal minimum of 5 members.
Turning to the discussion at the meeting held on Wednesday night we would make the following points:1)Allowing damage to go unrepaired for any period of time is not acceptable. We suggest that the Rally organisers list the damage that has been done immediately after each rally and make that list available to the CC and through the CC to local residents. The Rally must then take an active role in ensuring that the damage is repaired speedily and completely.
It would also be a small but useful compensation for residents most affected if the Fearnoch and Kilmodan stretches had the road surface repaired and brought up to a much better standard. We understand the pressure on the local authority in terms of resources but lack of attention to the road surface after each rally is cumulative and concerning. 2) The conditions applied to the organisers within the agreed licence needed to be observed and seen to be observed.For example there needs to be strict supervision of competitors on practice days so that access is not curtailed for residents and dangerous speeds and road hogging are prevented.
Emergency phone numbers on the rally days must be manned and responsive.
3) Signing for practice days needs to be put in place early and kept there. Signage on rally days must also be clearer about what is closed and must also stress what is open. Damage to local businesses in places like Tighnabruaich must be avoided by making it clear that access is always open to places not hosting closed stages.
4) The Rally should ensure that where there is a closure that impinges on residents in terms of their accessing their homes or being able to leave, then that is confined to a single session over the two days. That change would by itself reduce very substantially expressed concerns from affected residents. That session should either be Friday evening, Saturday morning, or Saturday afternoon. Whilst the Fearnoch (B886) proposal has reduced the closure from that imposed in 2024, the proposal for 2025 for the closure of what we call the West Road and the Rally calls Kilmodan is now even more unacceptable given that the road would be closed for all of Friday evening until the early hours of Saturday morning, and then for all of Saturday – morning, afternoon and evening and we would want to see that proposal withdrawn. Whilst they are outwith our area, we also think that more consultation is needed with the new areas included in the plans.
We understand that a minimum mileage is required to allow the rally to run and attract entrants, but there are alternatives in the area – for example within Cowal itself the roads to Lochgoilhead ,Ardentinny and Inverchoalain are not yet being used.
5) The consultation process with local residents most affected by closures has not been good enough and we would urge you to make direct contact with residents on any stretch of road that is proposed for closure. We are concerned on reading the information on the Motorsport UK website that there seems to be a contradiction in advice to organisers regarding consultation. We believe local people affected have the right to be heard and with that in mind we are encouraging residents to respond to your consultation and to copy their responses , if they so wish, to Motorsport UK, to the RSAC in Scotland and to Argyll & Bute Council.
I hope the above is helpful and I would stress again our aim in making these points is both to represent the range of views made to us at the meeting and beforehand , but also to ensure that the rally is able to develop strong community support in our area , as we know exists in Mull for that long established rally. Many people in our area already welcome the initiative and ensuring that these concerns are heard and acted on would we believe significantly assist the rally organisers, competitors and spectators as well as those local residents who remain adversely affected.
Yours sincerely
Michael W Russell
Vice-Chair
On behalf of ColGlen Community Council
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